Power restored to more than 20,000 customers in Dartmouth area

Power has been restored to more than 20,000 customers in theDartmouth, N.S., area that lost electricity early Thursday morning.

The outage also forced more than a dozen schools to dismiss students early.

According to Nova Scotia Power, more than 24,000 customers lost power at about4 a.m. between Woodlawn, Cow Bay and North Preston. That number was down to about 4,400 by noon, and those customers had powered restored shortly before 12:30 p.m.

On its website, the utility said the outage wasdue to a "transmission interruption."

The following schools in the Halifax Regional Centre for Educationdismissed early:

• Astral Drive Elementary
• Astral Drive Junior High
• Auburn Drive High
• Bel Ayr Elementary
• Bell Park Academic Centre
• Caldwell Road Elementary
• Colby Village Elementary
• Cole Harbour District High
• Colonel John Stuart Elementary
• Eastern Passage Education Centre
• Graham Creighton Junior High
• Joseph Giles Elementary
• Portland Estates Elementary
• Robert Kemp Turner Elementary
• Sir Robert Borden Junior High

Another outage that affected about 2,300 customers in the Lake Charles area, near Dartmouth, had "salt contamination" listed as the cause. That outage was restored shortly before 11 a.m. and lasted about an hour and a half.